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| Ferry ticket booths in Piraeus harbour |
It's easy to buy your ticket right in the harbour so I do that first thing on arrival from Salamina. I also find out that the ferry will leave from gate E2, which is as far as you can get from where I landed. There is a free shuttle, but I don't find this out until later. There goes the carefully laid out plan for my day in Piraeus. Good thing, I have plenty of time, so I go out of the main gate and try to orient myself to what I remember from my Google map. It all looks different in real life, but I take a chance and head inland to the left of the big church.
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| Agios Spiridon church |
Few blocks to the left and right, I stumble upon the book shop. I had imagined it to be much
bigger than the small shop it is. And of course, there are no books
in English except only ones for children learning English. There are several other book shops on the same street, but none carry
English books at all, never mind a book about Ikaria. Perhaps in summer they stock up.
I
head back to the port and find a bus stop Ag. Spiridon, which is where
the trolley bus #20 stops. I have forgotten to buy a ticket (you have to buy one at one of the kiosks), but the driver
lets me board anyway. Ten stops later, I disembark and find
Mikrolimano (Little Harbour).
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| Mikrolimano |
It is a lovely harbour but all the restaurants are
hogging the shore all the way to within inches of the sea with large
widows closed for the winter. So, to get anywhere close in, I find a
small passage between buildings and take some photos. I don't dare
walk on the foot-wide path between the restaurants and the sea.
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| Fisherman mending nets |
I
buy my return bus ticket at a kiosk and then stop for a coffee and a grilled cheese with ham and tomato sandwich at one of the waterfront cafes. The sun is
hitting the windows and it's lovely. I enjoy the view even though it's
through thick glass.
Later, I
go out and a few doors down notice another narrow passageway to a
dock. There are several boats here and a couple of men on
board – one on a powerboat and the other on a classic, wooden
ketch. There is electricity, but the dock and several others in
the bay as well as a crane and a haul out for small yachts and dinghies belong to the Helenic Yacht Club and there is a waiting list to join.
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| Lovely wooden ketch in Mikrolimano |
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| Some of the boats in Greek Yacht Club in Mikrolimano |
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| Haul-out for small yachts and dinghies |
According to the secretary at the office, they are not open to visiting
yachts.
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| Zea Marina |
I
catch the #20 bus back to the port, which passes by Zea Marina full of super yachts and then spend an hour searching
for the free shuttle to take me to Gate E2. Good thing I've plenty of
time. This could have been very stressful and expensive (taxi) if I
left it too long. It is a long way from Gate 8 where I arrived this morning to gate
2.
